Omg food

[ChickenGuy53]

So my flock of probably 38 poultry always seam to be hungry what could I do to help this

 

[QueenMisha]

Well, it could mean you either aren't feeding them enough, or have a parasite issue. How much do you feed each day? 38 birds worth of feed is difficult to gauge, so they should be fed free choice.

Check the droppings for evidence of worms as well.

You should check their keels to see if any are underweight.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It might help if you could tell us how and what you are feeding them. Are you trying to restrict their feed by measuring out a specific amount? It sounds like you may not have feed available all the time. Or are you talking about treats. Is this a specific time? It’s really hard to know if you are doing anything wrong or what that might be if we know nothing about what you are doing.

There are many possibilities. Chickens are greedy opportunistic feeders. If you set out a fresh feeder containing the feed they normally eat right after they’ve eaten they are very likely to go crazy over it and stuff themselves even more. If you put out some treat it can get even crazier. Their reacting as if they are starving doesn’t mean they are.

It is very important to commercial operations that each individual chicken eat a very specific amount of feed for optimum egg production without feed going to waste. They normally have thousands of hens roaming together. The way they achieve this without a dominant hen eating way too much and a less dominant hen going hungry is that they have sufficient feeding space so every hen can eat at the same time, then only release an amount of feed that the hens can clean up immediately. After they are hungry again they again release another measured amount. By the end of the day each hen has eaten exactly how much she needs for good health and optimum egg production and no more. Very efficient.

 

[RJSorensen]

If these are layers and not meat birds, then you can safely offer free choice 24/7 to them. Chickens will self regulate their own calorie needs and thus intake. If on the other hand you have more birds than you can feed… you might be best advised to reduce the bird count until you reach a point you are comfortable with. If you can let them out of the coop and or run and free range some, that will certainly help. Table scraps are ok in moderation, but you should be offering a complete ration that has all of the vitamins and trace minerals, if these are in short supply the birds will try to compensate with what ever they 'can' find to eat.

Best to you and your birds,

RJ

 

[mymilliefleur]

I agree with the others, it's very possible they are not getting enough to eat. How much are you feeding your flock per day?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have about the same amount of LF chickens, they consume between 3-5 coffee can scoops of food a day, and they free range, I'm also will assume you are not feeding them enough.